Prescription Joy

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
823992153
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2023–2025
Forms available
Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2022
Location
New Orleans, LA, USA
Rating
72
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Patient Services - Entertainment, Recreation

Reported finances

Revenue
$133,733
Expenses
$106,691
Assets
$57,850
Liabilities
$350

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

7 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Cortney Busch (Outgoing President)
  • Colette Gaffney (Incoming President)

People named in this filing

  • Cortney Busch (Outgoing President)
  • Marisa Morton (Secretary Director)
  • Pam Roberts (Treasuerer Director)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Mission: Prescription Joy supports holistic healing through curiosity and interpersonal play. Vision: Transformation through curiosity and interpersonal play. Our Core Values: Everyone has a right to joy. Transparency Sustainability Equity Care Joy. Prescription Joy interacts with children families older adults and staff members of hospitals assisted living facilities and shelters in the Greater New Orleans Louisiana area. We aim to transform an environment of stress fear loneliness and boredom into one of human connection imagination and play. Prescription Joy also hosts community health talks and produces originally written hospital plays that tour to each location.

What it reported doing in 2025

Prescription Joy serves children and families across the Gulf Coast through regular visits at four key locations: Manning Family Childrens Hospital New Orleans Ochsner Childrens Hospital St. Bernard Parish Hospital and the New Orleans Women and Childrens Shelter. At each site our therapeutic performance artists create moments of play laughter and connection that support the well-being of patients families and staff. Beyond direct visits we invest in continued education for our healthcare clowns. We host trainings in trauma informed care child development while also collaborating with local and international experts to expand skills in puppetry improvisation and somatic practices. Our artists participate in debriefs and reflective supervision after visits ensuring growth in artistry and compassion. Through this focus on bringing joy into hospitals and sustaining professional development we strengthen the standard of care in therapeutic healthcare clowning.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 74% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and program spending has grown recently. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 49
  • Transparency & Controls: 100
  • Sustainability: 57
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 44.6%; rating input score 45
  • Program expense ratio: 55.9%; rating input score 56

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 20.2%; rating input score 71; 71st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.54; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 18.8% per year; rating input score 100; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 36.5% per year; rating input score 100; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 49.2% per year; rating input score 100; 92nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 44.6% of revenue deployed · 55.9% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 3 filed program accomplishments · $60K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 7 people listed
  • Consistency: 8 of 8 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 3 filing years from 2023 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
  • Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 45/100.
  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 56/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 40/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 40/100.